What Are The Achievements Of Sportswear Enterprises Under The "Sports New Year"?

Nike "Slows Down", Anta Breaks 100 Billion

The importance of the Chinese market continues to rise

In 2024, Nike will still occupy the first place in the global sports apparel industry.

According to the performance data of Nike in fiscal year 2024 (June 2023 May 2024), the annual revenue was 51.362 billion US dollars, with a year-on-year growth of about 1%. It is worth noting that although it is in the leading position, it is the slowest fiscal year for Nike's revenue growth since fiscal year 2010, except fiscal year 2020.

In addition, according to the performance of the third quarter of fiscal year 2025 (from October 1, 2024 to December 31, 2024) announced by Nike, during the reporting period, Nike realized a year-on-year decrease of 9% in operating revenue (7% at a fixed exchange rate) to $11.269 billion, and a year-on-year decrease of 32% in net profit to $794 million. In addition to this quarter, Nike's revenue and net profit in fiscal year 2025 have declined for three consecutive quarters.

In response, Nike CEO Elliott Hill said, "We are not satisfied with the overall performance. We can and will do better."

Compared with Nike's "unsatisfactory" performance, Adidas is the opposite.

The financial report shows that in 2024, Adidas' global revenue will reach 23.683 billion euros, up 11% year on year; The net profit was 764 million euros, compared with - 0.75 billion euros in the same period of 2023, turning losses into profits.

In addition to the two giants, Anta, a Chinese local enterprise, will perform particularly well in 2024.

The 2024 financial report released by Anta Sports shows that the annual revenue of the enterprise increased by 13.6% year on year, reaching 70.826 billion yuan; Net profit increased by 52.4% year on year to 15.596 billion yuan. With the revenue of $5.183 billion (about 37.849 billion yuan) of Yamafin Sports in 2024, Anta Sports broke through 100 billion yuan for the first time, becoming the third sporting goods group in the world with an annual total revenue of more than 100 billion yuan, second only to Nike and Adidas.

From a regional perspective, with the rising popularity of domestic sports consumption, the Chinese market has become an important engine to promote the recovery of major sports brands.

From fiscal year 2022 to fiscal year 2024, the net sales of Arthur's Greater China were 62.4 billion yen, 77.615 billion yen and 100.498 billion yen respectively, showing a year-on-year growth trend. In fiscal year 2024, Greater China will become the third largest market after Europe and North America. Similarly, in the Greater China region, Puma recorded high unit growth in the fourth quarter of 2024, and has achieved positive growth for eight consecutive quarters.

In the fourth quarter of 2024, the revenue of Adidas in Greater China increased by 16.1% year on year, and the revenue of the whole year increased by 10.3% year on year, both achieving double-digit growth.

Bijorn Gulden, the global CEO of Adidas, said at the financial report meeting that the Chinese market has huge potential and is crucial to Adidas. What is worth mentioning is that during the "Double 11" promotion, the official flagship store of Adidas Tmall opened for sale for more than 100 million yuan in one minute, and one Samba shoe integrating the Suzhou embroidery technology was sold out in 100000 stocks in two minutes.

Sporty and fashionable brands are eye-catching

Professional and children's line, more possibilities

In addition to traditional sports groups, the operating performance of outdoor sports and fashionable sports apparel brands that have been popular with consumers in recent years is also the focus of the market.

On February 25, Amafin, the parent company of Archaeopteryx, handed over the group's first annual report after its listing in the United States. In 2024, the company's revenue will reach 5.183 billion US dollars, up 18% year on year; Operating profit was 471 million US dollars, up 56% year on year.

Among them, the outdoor functional clothing department with Archaeopteryx as the core, the annual revenue in 2024 will increase by 36% year-on-year to 2.194 billion dollars; The revenue of mountain outdoor clothing and equipment department with Salomon as the core increased by 10% to US $1.836 billion; The revenue of the ball and racket equipment department with Wilson as the core increased by 4% to $1.153 billion.

Yamafin executives said that among all brands, Archaeopteryx with the highest gross profit rate will continue to be the biggest potential driving force for the company's continuous growth in gross profit rate.

Kelong, also positioned as a high-end outdoor lifestyle, Anta Sports' financial report shows that in 2024, other matrix brands represented by Di Sant and Kelong will break 10 billion yuan for the first time, with a year-on-year growth of 53.7% and an operating profit margin of 28.6%, becoming the fastest growing segment.

In addition, in 2022, its market value exceeded that of Adidas and was second only to Nike's Lululemon, who also gave a good report card. As of February 2, 2025, in the whole fiscal year 2024, Lululemon's revenue increased by 10% year-on-year to US $10.6 billion, breaking through US $10 billion for the first time, and its net profit increased by 17% year-on-year to US $1.815 billion.

However, not all "hot brands" performed well. Different from the high growth trend of the above brands, as Anta's "cash cow", FILA's "earning power" gradually "weakened". In 2024, FILA's revenue will be 26.626 billion yuan, up 6.1% year on year, down significantly from 16.6% in 2023. At the same time, the proportion of income contributed by FILA decreased from 40.26% in 2023 to 37.6% in 2024.

Source: Anta Sports Financial Report

In addition to the outdoor sports market segment, children and professional sports also show great consumption potential.

In 2024, the revenue will exceed 10 billion yuan for the first time in 361 degrees, and children's brands will contribute significantly to the performance growth, with the revenue increasing by 19.5% year-on-year to 2.339 billion yuan, accounting for 23.2% of the total revenue. In addition, as the second growth curve of Tebu Group, the professional running brand Sokoni acquired by Tebu Group will break through 1 billion yuan in revenue in 2024, which will become an important boost to the group's performance growth.

Ding Shuibo, Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO of Tebu Group, said that the group's strategy of focusing on the field of running has achieved remarkable results. In the future, the Group will continue to give play to the synergy between the main brands of Tebu, Sokoni and Mile to further expand its market share.

The consumer market is "reshaped" and the competition is more fierce

It is more difficult for enterprises to "break the situation"

In 2024, sports enterprises will seize the market dividend and perform well on the whole. At the same time, behind the "slow pace" of some enterprises is the effectiveness of enterprise strategic adjustment under multiple pressures such as rising prices of raw materials, disruption of global supply chains, and increased inventory pressure.

In addition, the blurring of the boundary of sportswear has allowed more brands to enter the market, intensified the competitive environment, and led to more obvious differentiation of performance among enterprises. Taking the top four local enterprises as an example, there are obvious differences in profitability among enterprises, with a large gap in year-on-year growth of revenue and net profit.

In this regard, the insiders said that the sports consumption market is obviously differentiated, the high-end market has broken out, and more blue ocean markets have been created by subdividing categories. While consumer preferences have shifted to cost-effective, functional and sustainable products, traditional brands need to accelerate innovation to meet demand.

In addition, the change of the new retail model also requires the brand to invest in channel adjustment, inventory management, marketing innovation and other aspects.

The transformation will inevitably bring "pain", which puts forward higher requirements for the resilience of enterprises to cope with changes.

Take Anta as an example. In 2024, the overall gross profit rate of Anta Sports will be 62.2%, down 0.4 percentage points year on year. One of the reasons given by industry analysts for this problem is that the transformation of the brand DTC (DirectToConsumer) model is in the expansion period, and there is a certain cost to change from "wholesale retail" to "direct retail".

Li Ning, taking "steady operation, solid foundation and pragmatic development" as its core strategy, will close 201 inefficient direct stores in 2024, reduce the number of dealers by 5 to 41, reduce the proportion of the group's direct channel revenue in total revenue by 2 percentage points, and reduce the overall offline retail flow by a low single digit.

"In 2024, we will operate steadily, lay a solid foundation and develop pragmatically. This year is also the same. But it should be noted that conservatism does not mean conservatism. We are the attack, the control and the tone of the attack," said Qian Wei, co CEO of Li Ning Group.

According to iMedia Consulting, the size of China's sports shoes and clothing market has jumped to 542.5 billion yuan in 2024, and is expected to increase to 598.9 billion yuan in 2025, with a growth rate of 10.4%. From 2021 to 2025, China's sports shoes and clothing industry is expected to grow at an annual rate of 11.62%.

The sports market with broad prospects provides more opportunities for brands and enterprises to participate in it. Sports enterprises need to develop strategies that are more suitable for the new market environment, break the growth bottleneck, and obtain continuous recognition from consumers. (By Ji Xiaoling)

(Source: Xinhuanet)